A schizophrenic man who was found not guilty of attempted murder after he attacked a couple in their home can now be named.

Jason Meradith Harvey was found not guilty by reason of insanity last week of attempted murder, assault with a weapon and aggravated burglary.

Details of the case, including Harvey's name and the names of his victims, were suppressed until this morning when a hearing was held to discuss the matter.

Shortly after midnight on September 24, Harvey entered the couple's house and attacked them.

He beat the woman with an iron bar and then stabbed the man in the head before repeatedly hitting him with the iron bar.

The man suffered severe injuries and blood loss but was able to escape the frenzied attack.

Harvey left the house and led police on a high-speed chase.

He tried to ram police vans and drove the wrong way down the northern motorway.

He was arrested after he crashed into an on-coming car but he was unable to be interviewed because he was in an "unfit and incoherent state".

An insanity inquiry held last week heard that two psychiatrists - one for the crown and one for the defence - had decided that at the time Harvey was suffering from a "disease of the mind so significant and pervasive that he did not then know that what he was doing was morally wrong".

Dr Ian Goodwin said Harvey had a history of psychotic illness reaching back 23 years.

He had a history of delusions of persecution by police including becoming convinced police were trying to frame him for the murder of Marie Jamieson.

Jamieson was abducted off Karangahape Rd in 2001, her dead body dumped in West Auckland.

Joseph Reekers pleaded guilty to her murder in 2009.

Harvey developed his belief in 2003 and protested his innocence by hanging banners off a number of motorway bridges in Auckland.

Goodwin said Harvey also had a history of methamphetamine abuse and had been admitted to mental hospitals 24 times in the 10 years to September 2011.

At the time of the attack, Harvey thought police were plotting to kill him.

He was sleeping in his van with a machete to avoid police who he thought were bugging his phone.

Before the attack, he drove around town telling people police were going to murder him.

He also spray painted it on the road outside his house and made video tapes detailing the plot, which he hid in places around the city.

He became convinced the couple he attacked were involved in the police plot so he went round to confront them.

Harvey was released from his latest stint in mental health care on September 9, 2011.